The Everyday Strategist.

Reflections on how strategy shows up in work, life and culture

Ben Brooks-Dutton Ben Brooks-Dutton

Strategy as an antidote to subjectivity

Leaders who lean towards people-pleasing often spend more time revisiting decisions than they realise. This piece explores why good strategy matters most when it reduces subjectivity and gives teams something objective to work from under pressure.

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Ben Brooks-Dutton Ben Brooks-Dutton

How strategic judgement is actually learned

Much of what we recognise as strategic judgement is not taught through training or frameworks. It is learned through proximity to decisions, exposure to trade-offs and watching experienced leaders think in public. As work patterns change and informal learning erodes, organisations are expecting strategic capability without recreating the conditions that once built it.

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Ben Brooks-Dutton Ben Brooks-Dutton

When strategy stops being used

Strategy doesn’t always fail because it is wrong. More often, it fails because it quietly stops being used once work is live. This piece looks at why strategy drifts out of day-to-day decision-making under pressure, and what needs to change if it is going to hold beyond the room it was created in.

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Ben Brooks-Dutton Ben Brooks-Dutton

When strategy never quite gets set

Founders often say they never actually wrote their strategy when they started their business. It emerged through momentum, proximity and fast decisions. The problems tend to show up later, when more people are involved and clarity no longer travels. This piece explores why early confidence is often mistaken for strategy, and what has to change if direction is going to hold as work scales.

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Ben Brooks-Dutton Ben Brooks-Dutton

Using strategy and self-awareness to plan your week ahead

Strategy isn’t just for business. It’s how we make sense of what makes us all unique, what’s going on in our lives, decide what matters and act with intent. Here’s how the same thinking can help you shape a productive week ahead - whatever “productive” means for you right now.

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